


Clarity

by SilverMoonSky



Series: ML Oneshots [63]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Bittersweet, Canon Compliant, F/M, Light Angst, Miraculous NY Special, Onesided Lukanette, Post Season 3, onesided pining, pre-reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:48:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26724685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMoonSky/pseuds/SilverMoonSky
Summary: NY Special Spoilers ahead!||There’s something different about Marinette today. Luka stares at her, noticing the way her posture is straighter, signifying confidence. He watches as she grins when his eyes meet hers.And there’s something in her eyes, something that clearly hadn’t been there before she left.Clarity.—Or, in which Luka reflects on his relationship with Marinette after she comes back from New York.||
Relationships: Luka Couffaine & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: ML Oneshots [63]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643566
Comments: 40
Kudos: 82





	Clarity

It’s raining the day Marinette comes back from New York.

The clouds are gray, the blue sky is nowhere in sight, and Luka stands on the Liberty, dread slowly spreading through his veins, his chest tightening as the feeling climbs up his throat, his entire body trembling slightly as he waits.

He waits. Marinette is supposed to come over today. He’s ecstatic to see her again, of course. But at the same time, as he stands beneath the gray sky with droplets falling onto his hair and dripping down his face, he’s worried. His mind races with dozens of fragmented thoughts.

But Luka ignores them. He decides that for now, he doesn’t need to think about them.

He’ll have time for that later, when she arrives.

_ Luka is running his errands as a delivery boy. It’s just another casual day, just another day where he’s gotten an early start so he can get all his deliveries done. He’s just on his third delivery for the day when his phone suddenly starts ringing. _

__ _ Surprised, he pulls his phone out of his pocket. Who could possibly be calling him? His mother? Juleka? Or perhaps— _

__ _ “Luka!” Marinette exclaims as soon as he picks up. “Luka, I messed up!” _

__ _ Luka nearly jumps and almost drops his phone, startled. Isn’t Marinette supposed to be on the bus to the airport already? _

__ _ “Is something wrong?” _

He watches Marinette walk towards the Liberty, holding a black umbrella above her head to avoid being soaked in the rain. His lips automatically curl into a smile. Despite it only having been a week since Marinette left, he’d missed her. The song that has filled his heart since the moment they’d met has been so much emptier. There has been a void. One that hasn’t been filled by anything else.

And yet, the moment Luka sees her standing there, the melody begins to play, and Luka remembers what exactly he’d been missing that entire week.

Because no matter what he tells himself, things  _ do _ make a difference when Marinette is there. It always does.

_ “I missed the bus!” Marinette wails. “I overslept and I didn’t wake up in time and when I finally got to school I realized everyone had left already and I don’t know what to do—” _

__ _ “Woah woah, calm down.” Luka frowns and checks the time. “When did the bus leave?” _

__ _ “About ten minutes ago.” _

__ _ Ten minutes. . . . that shouldn’t take long, right? Sure, it would take a while if they walked, but if they took a car, or even biked. . . . _

_ In an instant, glancing down at the bike he has, Luka makes a decision. “Can you meet me at the Place des Vosges?” _

There’s something different about Marinette today. He stares at her, noticing the way her posture is straighter, signifying confidence. He watches as she grins when his eyes meet hers.

And there’s something in her eyes, something that clearly hadn’t been there before she left.

_ Clarity. _

It’s what Luka’s been expecting. From the moment Marinette left, he’s been expecting that spending an entire week in New York surely would change her. He  _ knows _ this was exactly what was going to happen.

But he’s not ready to hear the words. He’s not ready to hear what she has to say, because then that would mean. . . .

Luka pushes the thought from his mind and instead walks over to Marinette.

__ _ “What, why?” _

__ _ “We can catch up to the bus,” Luka says, grabbing his bicycle and quickly putting on his helmet. “If you meet me there, we can catch up to them.” _

__ _ “Wh-what? But that would never work! We can’t just—” _

__ _ “I’m on my way, be ready,” Luka says, and he disconnects the call as he grabs his bike and makes his way towards the Place des Vosges. _

__ _ Luka pedals towards the Place des Vosges as fast as he can. He’s not far; he knows he can make it. Luka knows how important this trip is to Marinette, after all. This is her chance to finally figure out things with Adrien without anything in Paris holding her back. It’s finally time she gets a chance to sort out her true feelings. _

__ _ And so he continues biking, faster and faster, until the Place des Vosges is in sight. _

“Hi,” Marinette says, grinning up at him.

“Hi,” he says back.

He steps towards her, but in that moment, the rain suddenly picks up. In an instant, what once was tiny droplets suddenly becomes a downpour, and Luka’s soaked. He winces. 

“Luka!” Marinette scolds, and she rushes over to him, thrusting her umbrella so it’s over both their heads.

“Sorry,” he says sheepishly. “I didn't realize there was going to be this much rain.”

“Maybe let’s go inside?”

“Yeah.” Luka looks up to see the storm clouds getting darker. “Let’s go inside.”

_ Luka sees Marinette just in time. He quickly checks his watch while he’s pedaling towards her. It shouldn’t take long for them to catch up to the bus. Luka’s confident he can get there in time. _

__ _ Marinette is standing there, a pink suitcase in one hand as she fiddles nervously with the other. However, her face lights up the moment she sees Luka. She grins, though her grin is far from excited. _

__ _ “Luka!” she exclaims in surprise. _

__ _ “Hey, Marinette,” he says, and reaches a hand towards her. “Come on, we don’t have much time if we want to catch up to your classmates.” _

__ _ Marinette gapes at him. “Wa-wait, really? You didn't just say that to make me feel better?” _

__ _ Luka raises his eyebrows, surprised she ever thought that. “Of course not. Now hurry up. We can get there in time, I’m sure of it.” _

As they make their way towards Luka’s bedroom, having dried themselves up after getting soaked in the rain, Luka contemplates his feelings.

He’s not quite sure how he feels, really. On the one hand, Marinette is back. Marinette is back, and he feels. . . . whole. The song that’s been playing in fragments throughout the week is finally whole.

But on the other hand. . . . well. He’ll be lying if he says he isn’t necessarily looking forward to her answer about finding clarity.

It’s silly, really. Her answer is obvious. It’s obvious from the way her eyes have lit up, from the way she walks over to him confidently, from the way she sits down beside him as he grabs his guitar, ready to hear him sort out all his emotions through its strings.

He  _ knows _ what her answer will be. He watches her fiddle with the umbrella from earlier—at first glance, it doesn’t seem like much. But Luka knows better than that. He  _ knows  _ better than that, because although Marinette has never told him what that specific umbrella meant to her, all he knows is that she’d stopped using it a while back.

And yet, as he watches her fiddle with it, with the initials  _ AA  _ shining in gold from where they’re carved on the handle, Luka’s heart clenches.

It doesn’t take long for him to realize precisely how this conversation is going to go.

Loving someone means you’ll be willing to do anything that makes them happy.That's what Luka tries to do; because even if he loves her, he  _ knows _ Marinette’s heart belongs to someone else. He can’t change that.

He gently probes her towards the one she loves because it’s the right thing to do.

So then why,  _ why _ does it hurt so much?

__ _ Luka pedals as fast as he can. Marinette’s hands are woven tight around his waist. He pedals and pedals and pedals, desperately looking for the bus that would take Marinette to the airport. _

_ At first, they’re silent. Marinette is simply holding onto him tightly as they continue towards where the bus is heading. But it isn’t long before Marinette’s panic begins to set in. _

__ _ “I’m sorry, Luka, we’ll never catch up to the bus!” _

__ _ Luka looks back at her ever-so slightly. “Of course we will. I know how important this trip is to you.” _

__ _ Marinette laughs nervously as Luka’s eyes find themselves back onto the road. _

__ _ “You’re saying it’s important because of Adrien, right? But what’s important is  _ not  _ that Adrien will be there, you know, I mean, it’s important to me, it’s important to Adrien because it’s an important trip,  _ but  _ it’s not important to me because he’s just a _ friend.”

__ _ Luka fondly smiles back at Marinette, even as his heart clenches and he forces himself to look back at the road. Despite what Marinette says, he knows more than anything, that once Marinette falls for someone, she gives it her all. There’s no way her feelings for Adrien simply vanished like that; there’s more behind it, and Luka hopes that she’ll be able to embrace it. _

At first, they exchange small talk and pleasantries. A few things here and there. Marinette talks about magical hot dogs and American superheroes and annoying sliding doors, and Luka listens.

Her tales bemuse him. A part of him almost wishes he could’ve gone to New York with them, but he stops the thought. It wasn’t his place to, after all, and besides, he was sure Marinette wouldn’t have found the clarity she needed to if he’d come along.

It wasn’t long before the pleasantries ended. They were now looking at one another with only one topic in mind to talk about. Luka gulps.

He’s afraid of the answer, but, well, the only way he’ll get an answer is if he asks.

“How were things with Adrien?”

Luka’s fingers automatically find themselves on his guitar, and he idly strummed a few notes. The discordant notes that followed—causing both him and Marinette to wince—were a symbol of how  _ he _ felt.

He quickly changes it. Instead, Luka tunes into Marinette’s emotions and gently plucks his fingers to mirror what she’s feeling. And, as he plays the notes buried deep within Marinette’s heart, he realizes his intuition had been correct.

Marinette  _ has _ figured it out, she  _ has _ come to realizations about her feelings, and instead of babbling on about how she didn’t have romantic feelings for Adrien was just and how she only saw him as a friend—

“Luka, I still love him.”

_ After pedaling and pedaling and pedaling, Luka finally catches sight of the bus. He points it out to Marinette, who, in an instant, is suddenly optimistic again. She grins, he smiles, and they finally manage to catch up to the bus. _

__ _ The bus skids to a stop. Luka turns and looks at Marinette. She gets off the bike, and he smiles fondly at her. _

__ _ “You know what’s important, Marinette?” Luka asks quietly. “That this trip helps you get some clarity.” _

__ _ Marinete smiles at him. An unspoken conversation drifts between them. _

_ “Thank you, Luka,” she whispers. Marinette leans over to kiss his cheek. Luka’s heart flutters, and he manages to give Marinette one last smile before she takes her things and walks into the bus. _

It’s the answer he’s been expecting. It’s the answer he  _ knows _ she was going to give, the answer that turns his stomach and clenches his soul and he  _ knows _ although he’s happy for her, it  _ hurts _ and he can’t change that—

He turns towards her, a smile on his face.  “How did you figure it out?” he murmurs.

He’s happy for her, really. His fingers continue to move quickly across the guitar strings. Once he’s heard the words, suddenly, everything else is clearer. The melody in Marinette’s heart is much, much clearer than it had been before.

It’s a melody that beats for a certain blond haired, green-eyed boy.

“It was obvious,” she said with a soft laugh. “It’s obvious that I never let go of my feelings for Adrien, and when he was going to leave New York. . . . I realized that I still loved him, and that he wasn’t just a friend.”

“I’m happy for you,” Luka says softly.

And really, he is. She’s sorted through the turmoil in her heart, and now, she can finally sort through the rest of her emotions in peace.

Marnette smiles as she looks up at him. “Thank you, Luka,” Marinette whispers softly. “If it wasn’t for you telling me to find clarity, I never would’ve found it.”

“I’m glad,” he whispers back. “What are you going to do now?”

“I. . . . I don’t know.” Marinette sighs. “I don’t know. I don’t know if I should tell him how I feel, I don’t know if I should just keep my feelings to myself. . . . trying to confess never worked earlier, so how am I supposed to do that now?”

“It’s your choice, Marinette,” Luka says. “If you want to confess, then tell him about your feelings. But if you’re not ready for that, don’t do it. Do whatever’s comfortable for you.”

Luka’s fingers continue to move across his guitar, and he lets himself tune into Marinette’s subconscious thoughts the best he can. He forgets about his own emotions. He forgets about how  _ he’s _ feeling, and instead focuses on her, letting himself immerse in what  _ she _ was wants and needs—

Marinette looks over at him, and smiles. She smiles, the same smile Luka fell for all those months ago, the same smile that continues to pull his heart every time it’s directed towards him.

Has it really been that long? Have things really changed so much since then?

Luka wants to believe it. He  _ wants _ to believe that things have changed, and that one day all those months ago, he’d stood a chance.

However, the truth is, he never has. Marinette’s heart has belonged to someone else since the day they’d met. He can’t change that.

But he  _ can  _ make her happy by supporting her own decisions. That’s what matters.

Marinette sits there on his bed for a little longer, immersing herself in his music as he continues to play. He pours his heart and soul into it, playing and playing through her emotions, and when he’s finally finished, he sits back, his hands light and yet his heart heavy.

She stands. Luka stands. Marinette turns to him, reaches up on her toes, and presses her lips gently to his cheek.

“Thank you, Luka,” she whispers once again. Luka wonders just how many times she’s whispered it at this point. “You’re a very good friend.”

_ Friend. _

And as much as it hurts, he’s okay with that.

They make their way up to the top deck. He watches as she leaves with me the black umbrella in tow.

It’s not raining. It’s barely droplets that fall, and yet, as she spreads out the umbrella and holds it above her head, Luka knows.

He smiles as he waves back at her. This is it. It’s over, it’s done.

Marinette has finally found the clarity she deserves, and Luka knows that this is it.

She turns her back on him and walks away. Luka stares until she’s out of sight, but he doesn’t move from his spot on the Liberty.

Standing there, with the clouds slowly parting while sunlight trickles down to the ground, Luka has a heavy heart.

But he’ll be okay. He knows it.

Maybe it’s time for him to move on, maybe he should let himself immerse in these feelings a little longer; in all honesty, Luka doesn’t really know what to do now that the song in his heart belongs to another.

However, Marinette has found clarity with her feelings.

And maybe someday, Luka will, too.

**Author's Note:**

> Join the [Miraculous Fanworks Discord Server](https://discord.gg/mlfanworks) if you’re a writer, reader, or artist! It’s a lovely community filled with even lovelier people <3


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